1. Field of the Invention
The instant disclosure relates to a object carrier transport system and a method of transporting object carriers, and pertains particularly to a object carrier transport system and a method of transporting object carriers adapted to a carrier storage apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
During a manufacturing process of a semiconductor with high-density integrated circuit, hundreds of steps are carried out. Wafers on the same batch need to be transported from one of a plurality processing machines to another to finish all the steps required.
A plurality of semiconductor wafers can be housed in a front opening unified pod (FOUP), and a plurality of FOUPs may be carried around in various rooms or between various processing machines in response to the processing stage of the semiconductor wafers in each of the FOUPs. In addition, after the completion of the instant stage of the process, the FOUPs with the semiconductor wafers may be moved into a storage apparatus due to the production capacity or other reasons.
When the wafers housed in the FOUPs need to continue a commanded processing stage, it is important to efficiently transport and allocate the FOUPs to the appropriate process area or process machine.